


The Yule Ball Pact

by sal_black



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, M/M, Yule Ball (Harry Potter)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:15:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24519058
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sal_black/pseuds/sal_black
Summary: Harry wants to ask someone to the Yule Ball. So does Fleur. When they meet and tell each other of their troubles, Harry comes up with an idea so they both get themselves to ask out their crushes.
Relationships: Fleur Delacour/Hermione Granger, Harry Potter/George Weasley
Comments: 4
Kudos: 447





	The Yule Ball Pact

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! So, two things.   
> 1\. Harry Potter and his world don´t belong to me. I´m just playing with them.  
> 2\. I´m sorry, but I didn´t write Fleur´s accent. I just have no idea how to write that...  
> I hope you like it. Have fun!

He didn´t want to invite any girl to the Yule Ball.

It wasn´t the fact of the Yule Ball that aggravated him. It was more the fact that everyone expected him to go with a girl. He didn’t have anything against girls in general. No, they were nice, they could listen better than most of his male friends could. They were good friends. But nothing else. Harry just couldn´t imagine himself going to the Yule Ball with a girl. There were too many implications to it, and if there had to be implications, then he would at least like to go with someone who actually had a chance with him. Not that anybody ever would. Not as long as George Weasley roamed the school.

At this moment Harry was glad for his Invisibility Cloak hiding his red cheeks. Originally, he had used the Cloak to escape the castle. To get away from both the hateful glances and the girls asking him to the Ball. Not one guy had come up to him in that matter. He knew that same-sex pairings were generally accepted in the Wizarding World – if Dean and Seamus were any implication. It was just him that was expected to go with a girl.

While Harry made his way down to the Black Lake, his thoughts began to wander. It had been in his second year when started telling George and Fred apart. They had been two of the few people sticking with him during that Heir of Slytherin business. From one day to next, when Fred had come up to him pretending to be George, Harry had simply answered “You´re not George.” Had George come up to him pretending to be Fred, Harry´s answer had been equally simple: “Hello George!” His answer had varied over the years, but it had always stayed true to that meaning. Because it WAS true.

He couldn´t explain it, but Fred just wasn´t George. Fred´s eyes weren´t the same deep brown that George´s eyes were. They didn´t shine in the same way as George´s did. And Fred´s aura didn´t exude the same calm and peace as George did. Fred didn´t have that little mole right next to his left eye, the one that was hidden beneath wrinkles whenever George laughed. And George´s freckles were just that little bit more prominent, and if you looked closely you could see them forming a lion on George´s right cheek. And Fred didn´t have that. Because Fred just wasn´t George.

Harry had been so lost in his thoughts that he didn´t even realise he was walking straight into the blonde witch sitting at the edge of the Black Lake, her legs barely touching the surface of the water. “Ouch!”

“Oh, shit, Fleur! Are you alright?”

“Who are you?” Fleur was rubbing her right side, glaring at thin air, until Harry pulled off his Cloak.

“I´m so sorry Fleur. I was lost in thoughts, I didn´t even realise where I was going!”

“Harry Potter.” The distaste in her voice was obvious, and Harry sighed.

“Yeah. Look, Fleur, I really am sorry about running into you. But you´ve been treating me either like a piece of garbage or like a toddler these past few weeks, and I really haven´t got any idea why. I didn´t choose to be a champion, and you can believe me that I´d rather not be one.”

“What? Is that part of your speech to lead up to asking me out to the Yule Ball? The you-should-feel-guilty-because-you-haven´t-always-been-nice-before-approach?”, the witch snapped.

“What?! No!” Only now did Harry realise that Fleur´s eyes were red-rimmed and looked like she had been constantly crying for at least one hour without break. “Hey, what happened? Are you okay?” He let himself fall onto the ground next to Fleur, his legs tucked under his body. The two champions might not have been on the best of terms before, but if the blonde witch needed someone to talk, he wouldn´t deny her that.

“You really didn’t come to ask me out?”

“God, no! Although I guess it would be easier…”

“Easier? What do you mean?”

“The person I wanted to ask… I´m not even sure if I´d be allowed to do so, if I could bring myself to ask them, that is. And if I asked you – on the off chance you said yes, of course – I´d finally get rid of all the fangirls following me around. I swear that Romilda Vane girl has asked me more than three times in the last hour!” Fleur began chuckling. “That´s not funny!”

“Oh, yes, it is! Do you know why I´ve been sitting here on the frozen ground for the last hour?” Harry frowned. “There is this person I want to ask to the Ball. I´m sure that they hate me, and anyways, everyone expects me to go with some guy and I don´t even know any of the ones who ask me! The only ones I could safely go with are the ones from Beauxbatons, and they are the only boys who are not set on asking me!” Now Harry began chuckling as well.

“Agreed, our situations are quite similar. That gives me an idea…” Fleur took one look at Harry´s scheming expression and shuddered. That smirk looked totally misplaced on the small, brash boy she had thought the wizard before her was until now. It was a smirk you would put on your villains face right before they were starting their super-coup.

“I´m not sure I´m going to like that.”

“You said you wanted to ask someone out, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Great! So, how about we make a pact? In the next twenty-four hours we´re both going to ask out our crush.”

“And what if they say no?”

“We go together.”

“And if only one person says yes?”

“Then the other person will find them a date. One who we´re sure won´t take advantage of the other, and who won´t fall for any veela- or Boy-Who-Lived-charms. What do you say?” Before Harry could say or do anything else, he was enveloped in a hug from the witch sitting next to him. _´Huh, that relationship changed fast.´_

“You´re a lifesaver! You won´t believe it, but I was just about to go and say yes to that Ravenclaw boy who has asked me a dozen times already.”

“So it´s a deal?”

“Yes!”

They grinned at each other before turning around and watching the Black Lake in comfortable silence.

*

That evening Harry sat in the Gryffindor common room, contemplating how he could possibly ask George Weasley, prankster extraordinaire, of all people, to go to the Yule Ball with him. He knew that Fred had already asked Katie Bell – but that didn’t have to mean anything. He had already established long ago that Fred was in no way George. As he was once again falling back into this pattern of thought, the cushion of the couch he was sitting on shifted. He looked up only to see George sitting next to him, his arm draped around Harry´s shoulders. _´Speak of the devil…´_

“Hello Harrikins! What´s got you in such a mood?”

“Huh?”

“Oh come on! You´ve already been sitting here for two hours, staring into the fire. Everyone else has gone to bed by now.” Harry looked around. It was true, he and George were the only people still left in the common room. He took in a deep breath.

“George? Do you already have a partner for the Yule Ball?”

“No, why?”

“There is this person I want to ask, and I was wondering…” Harry trailed off and looked at George, who had stiffened slightly. There were so many emotions swirling in his eyes, but the most well-hidden one was hurt. Harry didn´t have to look for long to find exactly this emotion, and it reassured him a bit. Hermione may say he was oblivious, but he could be quite observant as well. Sometimes. Rarely. But he could be. And in this very moment he was. He saw the pain it caused George to say his next sentence, the effort it cost him.

“Do you need help asking someone out?” Because no matter what, George would always care, even if his own feelings had to be pushed back for it.

Harry looked up into the warm brown eyes, the ones that were so unique, and so filled with emotions this very second. “Actually, I just asked you because I didn´t want to embarrass myself with what I´m about to ask…”

“Why should you embarrass yourself?” The brown eyes stared back at him; confusion now mixed into the cocktail of emotions.

Harry snorted. “And they call me oblivious! I wanted to ask you out, dumbass!”

George could only stare back at him, his jaw dropped open.

“So what? Are you going to leave me waiting here all night?!”

“You want to go together? As friends?”

“Oh my god, George! Close your eyes.”

“Why?”

“Close them.”

“Alright…” As soon as George had closed his eyes, they snapped open again. Because Harry Potter had just leaned forward and pressed his lips onto George´s! Harry bloody Potter was kissing him! When did that happen?!

*

The next morning at breakfast, Harry caught Fleur´s gaze over the three tables separating them, grinned and then nodded at her. Fleur grinned back, a giddy expression on her face.

*

_One hour earlier…._

Fleur took a deep breath and cast a disillusionment charm on herself. Then she snuck out of her carriage and into the castle, up the moving staircases and into the library. When she was sure that no-one could see her, she cancelled the charm and walked through the aisles in search of a particular, bushy haired, witch. She found her in the very back, hidden between ancient tomes about magical creatures.

“Excuse me. May I sit down?”

The younger witch looked up and frowned. “If you must.”

“You don´t like me very much, do you?”

“Not particularly, no.”

“Why?”

“Because… Well, first of all you won´t stop complaining. You complain about the weather, the castle, the food, the decorations. I feel like there isn´t one thing you don´t complain about in England. Second, you treat Harry like he´s worth less than you. He didn´t choose to become a champion, and you´re not making it easier for him. Krum at least ignores him.”

“And this is why I like you.”

“Sorry?”

“You´re not afraid to say whatever is on your mind, even if it isn´t the most positive thing to say. And even if it is to someone who is older than you. I like that.”

“Umm… Thanks, I guess?”

“Do you want to know why I am complaining so much?”

“Go ahead.”

“Because I am homesick.” The other witch stared at her, baffled. “In France, the people at school know me. They know about my heritage, and they respect that I am no object, that I am as human as any of them. They refrain from crowding me, because they know I hate it, and that it makes me uncomfortable. But here, everyone comes up to me, asking me to go to the Yule Ball, not giving me one free second, not allowing me breathing space. Do you like it when other people treat you like you are something else, simply because of your looks or your parents?”

“Huh, I hadn´t thought about it like that…”

“In Beauxbatons, the boys know to leave me alone.”

“But still, couldn´t you just tell the people who annoy you that?”

“I can, and I do. But sometimes it is simply not enough. And besides, that isn´t the only reason for missing my home. You see, I have a little sister, Gaby. She is eight now, and she carries the same curse of our heritage that I do. Before Gaby was born, I would try to hide my body as much as possible. I would wear the baggiest clothes I could find, never expose more skin than absolutely necessary. And then Gaby came. And the eyes in the room began to shift from me to her over the years. That´s when I started dressing myself up, to protect her. I didn´t want her to experience any of what I had to endure. And now I´m gone, and she is all on her own. And I can´t do anything to protect her anymore, not while I´m here…” Fleur had to fight back a sob, looking down to hide her teary eyes from the witch opposite her.

“Oh Fleur. I´m so sorry! I didn´t know, I just assumed I knew all about you without knowing anything… I wasn´t thinking…”

“It is alright. You couldn´t know. My mask was able to fool everybody in my life until now. Why should you be any different? But that isn´t why I was looking for you.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, actually, I wanted to ask you something…” Her hands in her lap were starting to sweat a little, and she began rubbing them against each other. “Do you… Do you want to go to the Yule Ball with me?”

The younger witches head snapped up. “Me?! Why me?!”

“Because I like you, Hermione. Because you don´t care for my heritage, or for me being a champion. Because I want you to get to know the real me, the one without the mask.”

“You´re serious?”

“Yes”

The brown-haired witch grinned at her. “It´s a deal then.”

*

The day of the Yule Ball came up, and many people were speculating about the dates of two of the Triwizard Champions. Fleur and Harry had both been very secretive about their partners – as far as they knew no-one was sure about the identity of their dates. There had been speculations, of course, but none of them came close to the truth.

To top it off, Harry, George, Fleur, and Hermione had left before everyone else, and as the school slowly trudged to the doors of the Great Hall it was to find the two pairs joking with each other, seemingly only waiting for everyone else to arrive. There were murmurs going along in waves between the students - _´Potter and Granger! The Prophet was right!´ ´How did George manage to get Fleur as his date?´ ´Wait. Harry and Hermione? I thought that was only one of the lies from the Prophet!´_ \- but there was no-one suspecting the truth, still. Harry sighed. How could people be so stuck in their one mindset?! Not even Ron, who was going with Lisa Turpin from Ravenclaw, standing RIGHT NEXT TO Dean and Seamus could piece it all together.

Thus, it was quite the surprise for everyone involved when the champions lined up into pairs. McGonagall only lifted one eyebrow at him, before turning and opening the doors of the Great Hall.

Right before they were beginning to enter, Harry could distinctly hear Ron´s voice behind him. “Mum is going to throw a fit when she hears that Harry will become an official Weasley one day!”

Spluttering, Harry turned to George, who was only grinning at him.


End file.
